Tag Archives: Virago Press

In The Dark Circle, Lenny and Miriam are twins living in London after World War II. Their father had passed away when they were young, and in this period of postwar austerity, their mother is trying her best to look out for them with their uncle Manny’s help. Manny, having lost his only son to […]

Torching the Dusties is the closing ‘wicked’ tale in Stone Mattress. The main protagonist is Wilma, an old widow suffering from Charles Bonnet’s syndrome; a common condition among elderly people with weak eyesight. Tobias, Wilma’s friend fulfills the role of her eyes in Ambrosia Manor, the comfortable assisted living facility where they both live. One […]

It was a time before contraceptive pills were accessible to girls, or abortion was an option. Verna – the protagonist of the title story – was only fourteen years old when Bob Goreham, “shining light from a respectable family” takes her to a high-school dance, gets her drunk and rapes her. Bob’s version of the […]

Margaret Atwood is so cool! I already knew she is a terrific writer, but I never thought I would be laughing this hard reading ‘wicked’ stories! Jack – the protagonist of The Dead Hand Loves You short story – complains at one point of the “whole new vocabulary” youth these days have going, which makes him feel as if “he’s […]

I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth is the sequel to Margaret Atwood’s novel Robber Bride. It is a novel I enjoyed very much, so reading this short story was pure bliss for me. 🙂 (By the way, you can enjoy this short story without having read Robber Bride) Tony, Roz and Charis, now in their dotage, are three […]

We catch Sam, the protagonist of The Freeze-Dried Groom on a bad day. His wife, Gwyneth has just asked for a divorce, before he even had time for his morning coffee. Sam, who has been given second chances by his wife before, knows this time it is for real, that there is no point in sticking around […]

Lusus Naturae is narrated by a girl who turns grotesque at the age of seven. Little girl’s family – members of almost high society who are terrified and chagrined of what her appearance would mean to their status – brings in a doctor from a far away land to restore her looks, only to have her decreed a freak of […]

Dark Lady is loosely connected to both Alphinland and Revenant short stories and based on Marjoree, the last link in a love triangle. Marjoree; also referred to as Jorrie, no longer young, lives with her twin brother, Martin. As the Starr star has risen, so has Jorrie’s own star faded: she no longer twinkles, she no longer monkey-shines. Constance and Gavin both made […]

In Revenant, which is loosely connected to Alphinland, we meet Constance’s faithless ex-lover, Gavin. Gavin is now an old man living with his third wife, Reynolds, who is thirty some years junior to him. He is an accomplished author and it seems Naveena, a literary scholar from Iowa, is basing her thesis on his work. Although he is […]

Alphinland follows the story of Constance; the recent widow of Ewan. With her two boys married and “conveniently far for them to visit”, Constance lives on her own. But with Ewan’s voice in her head to guide her, she is not afraid to live by herself, after all Ewan was always a good planner. And besides even if she […]

Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge. The opening line of The Blind Assassin – that is how Margaret Atwood hooked me. Many summers have passed since then, and after spending many evenings devouring six more of her books, here I am today, with a shiny copy of Stone Mattress in my hands […]

Advertisements

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.